How to Root Your Phone using SuperSU

If you really want to dig into the Android system, you may find that some apps require root access. Rooting has become less necessary over the years, but it’s still useful if you want to run certain types of apps. Here’s the most widely supported method for rooting your device, and why you might want to.

What is Root

Android is the most popular mobile operating system till now, and is running Linux OS. On Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems, the root user is equivalent to the Administrator user on Windows. The root user has access to the entire operating system, and can do anything. By default, you don’t have root access to your own Android device, and certain apps won’t function without root access.

Technical aspects aside, root access allows you to do a lot of useful things. With root, you can remove bloatware that came on your phone, run a firewall, enable tethering even if your carrier is blocking it, manually back up your system, and use a variety of other tweaks that require low-level system access.

Warnings

Android devices don’t come rooted for a reason. In fact, some device manufacturers go out of their way to prevent you from rooting. Here’s why:

Security: Rooting breaks apps out of Android’s normal security sandbox. Apps could abuse root privileges you’ve granted and snoop on other apps, something which isn’t normally possible. In fact, Google prevents you from using Android Pay on rooted devices for this reason.

Warranty: Some manufacturers assert that rooting voids your device’s warranty. However, rooting will not actually damage your hardware. In many cases, you can “unroot” your device and manufacturers won’t be able to tell if it’s been rooted.

Bricking: As usual, you do this at your own risk. Rooting should generally be a very safe process, but you’re on your own here. If you mess something up, you can’t just expect free warranty service to fix it. If you’re worried, do a bit of research first and see if other people report success rooting your device with the tool you’re planning on using.
In addition, rooting may void your warranty, at least for certain types of repairs.

Rooting Purpose

The purpose of rooting a phone is simple, to gain access to all services available in a android phone. In brief, rooting will involve one of these processes:

Unlock the Bootloader : Google and device manufacturers don’t officially support rooting, but they do provide an official way to gain low-level access to some devices, which then allows you to root. For example, Nexus devices are intended for developers, and you can easily unlock the bootloader with a single command. You can then root your device by flashing a .zip file containing the su binary from the recovery screen.

Exploit a Security Vulnerability : Other devices are locked down. Their manufacturers provide no official way to unlock their bootloaders and tamper with their software. These devices can still be rooted, but only by discovering a security vulnerability on the device and exploiting it to install a su binary onto their system partition.

Flash LineageOS or Another Custom ROM’s : Technically, this is an extension of one of the above methods. Unlocking the bootloader and exploiting a security vulnerability can each allow you to flash Custom ROMs like LineageOS, which often come pre-rooted. LineageOS includes a simple toggle on its settings screen that allows you to enable or disable root access.

Alright, so you’ve unlocked your bootloader, and you’ve installed TWRP. Great! You’re actually almost there. To gain root access, we’re going to use a program called SuperSU, which gives you the ability to grant root access to other apps.

So, to start, head to this link, which will take you to the latest version of SuperSU available for download.

Download the .zip file to your computer

Plug in your phone with a USB cable,

Drag the SuperSU zip to your phone’s internal storage or SD card.

Step 1

Next, reboot your phone into TWRP recovery. Doing this is a bit different on every phone.

Note: Different Android devices have different key combines to enter recovery mode. Generally, you may have to hold the Power and Volume Down buttons simultaneously, then use the volume keys to boot “Recovery Mode”.

For Samsung – hold the volume up, home, and power button at the same time until you see the Samsung logo, and then release.

For SONY – hold the volume up, home, and power button at the same time until you see the Samsung logo, and then release.

Once you’ve done so, you’ll be greeted with the familiar TWRP home screen. Click the Install button.

The following screen will appear. Scroll down and navigate to the SuperSU ZIP file you copied in step 0.

Tap the SuperSU zip and you’ll see this screen. Swipe to confirm the flash.

It should only take a moment to flash the SuperSU package. When it finishes, tap the “Wipe cache/Dalvik” button that appears and swipe to confirm.

When that finishes, tap the “Reboot System” button to boot back into Android.

If TWRP asks if you want to install SuperSU now, choose “Do Not Install”. Sometimes, TWRP can’t detect that you already have SuperSU, so it’ll ask to flash its built-in version. But it’s almost always best to flash the latest version of SuperSU yourself, which we’ve just done 🙂

Manage Root Permissions

When you reboot your phone, you should see the new SuperSU icon in your app drawer. SuperSU controls which other apps on your phone get root permissions. Whenever an app wants to request root permissions, it has to ask your SuperSU app, which will show a request prompt.

NB : To make sure root is working properly, you can download the Root Checker app and verify your rooted status.

To manage root permissions, open your app drawer and tap the SuperSU icon. You’ll see a list of apps that have been granted or denied superuser access. You can tap on an app to change its permissions.

Unroot

If you ever want to unroot, open the SuperSU app, go to its Settings screen, and tap the “Full unroot” option. It will attempt to unroot your device. If it works for you, this is definitely the easiest way to unroot your phone.

A passionate blogger and a tech enthusiast who is always keen and awaiting to know about fully fledged new technologies who's currently using Zenfone 3 as a part of daily routine. You can spot me @ #facebook, #twitter & #Google +